News

BRAZIL

A meeting will be held held in September (14- 18) to honour Dr Warwick Estevam Kerr on his 70th birthday. The meeting will include talks and symposia by invited speakers. Part of the meeting will be in Rio Claro and part in Ribeirao Preto (150 km apart). During the reunion in Rio Claro there will be dinner in honour of Dr Kerr, The symposia will be mostly in Portuguese, though some invited speakers will give talks in English.

THE GAMBIA

A training programme in beekeeping has started. DANIDA (The Danish International Development Agency) is support the project with £136,000. The project is one outcome of a social-anthropological research programme on beekeeping in rural development started in 1989. The project involves co-operation between the Gambian Co-operative Beekeepers’ Association, the Association of Farmers, Educators and Traders, The Danish Beekeepers’ Association and DANIDA. The Danish Beekeepers’ Association is administering the project and providing consultants.

Two local organisations are responsible for the project without any interference from the government. Teaching is all done by Gambian beekeepers, carpenters, agriculturalists, specialists in pesticide use and in co- operative organisations. It is our hope that half of the trainees are women One woman beekeeper (F Sonko) has the special job of motivating others to participate in the training.

The traditional way of beekeeping includes killing of the bees with fire when harvesting the honey. In the training programme we will use local knowledge and materials, combined with new knowledge, so that honey can be harvested without destroying bee families to get more honey and to secure strong bee population for better pollination.

Six small training centres in different parts of the country will be constructed, and training carried out in rotatory system.

Equipment will be bought or made locally. The trainees will join three training sessions in different seasons. One bee uniform will be provided free of charge, and they will make their own hives to take back to their villages. Trainees will learn to use all types of hives, but the emphasis will be on top-bar hives and using local hives in modern ways. The first group of trainees - half females and half males, started training in January 1992.

Source: Ole Hertz, Denmark

GHANA

Once the sweetness of the pudding has been realised people will not wait their turn to taste it.

That was the case in 1991 when rural industries officers found they could rely on a flood of invitations from beekeeping enthusiasts to draw up programme of extension services.

Showing tangible evidence of the profitability of beekeeping is the way GRATIS holds the attention of potential beekeepers. This is done through selling honey and beeswax. During the year, the demand for honey grew and sometimes outstripped the supply. By taking care of their marketing problems in the early stages, potential beekeepers could be encouraged to learn more skills and expand their apiaries.

Comparison could be made between the smoke-free, pure honey which sold for maximum of 1200 Cedis ($4) and contaminated honey gathered through traditional means which sold at the low price of 300 Cedis ($1) per Ghanaian beer bottle (624 ml). Based on a yield of two gallons per hive which is the equivalent of 14 beer bottles, two honey harvests per year could provide 28 bottles. If this is multiplied by 1200 Cedis per bottle, the annual income from one hive could be 33,608 Cedis ($120).

This strategy of proving the profit in modern beekeeping is effective and also teaches beekeepers ways of establishing markets for their own products.

Source: Nelson Akukumah, Rural Industries Officer, GRATIS

PUERTO RICO

Puerto Rico has over 35 named brands of honey, most of them regional, but the market is dominated by imported honey from the Dominican Republic. This imported honey sells at lower price than local honey and retailers make more profit on it. In second place by volume is local honey, which sells at middle-range price. In third place, small! amounts of honey are imported from the USA, and this sells at very high price. This “Goya” brand is distributed nationally and in the Eastern USA: it is processed and bottled in New Jersey The Goya Food Company sells over $500 million in food each year but statistics about their honey sales are not available.

“The imports of the Dominican Republic are affecting us because of its low price”, says Mr Nieves, a local beekeeper. “However, the American honey doesn't affect us too much, because it sells at a higher price than ours”.

Source: Lewis Manuel Medina

UGANDA

The Uganda Beekeepers’ Association was officially launched on the 18 February 1992 by the Hon Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry & Fisheries, Mrs Victoria Ssekitoleko. As contribution to the new Association, the Ministry has provided premises for its headquarters in Kampala.

The new Association has over 200 members who are aiming together to achieve improvement in the quality and marketing of bee products.

The Association has categories membership for both individuals (equivalent membership for both individuals (equivalent to 10) and for institutions and companies (equivalent to £20). If you wish to support the Association then please send your membership fee. Payable to Uganda Beekeepers’ Association, Kampala.